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<title>No Dwarf Had Ever Been Luckier by Galadriel1010</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26164846">No Dwarf Had Ever Been Luckier</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galadriel1010/pseuds/Galadriel1010'>Galadriel1010</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Birthday Prompts [24]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aeducan is not the Warden, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Origin Story, Warrior Aeducan (Dragon Age)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 02:48:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>465</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26164846</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galadriel1010/pseuds/Galadriel1010</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Gorim Saelac reflects on his love's fate</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Female Aeducan/Gorim Saelac</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Birthday Prompts [24]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1862779</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>No Dwarf Had Ever Been Luckier</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>If there was ever a Paragon born, it was Dalriada Aeducan. As a child she had outshone the whole Diamond Quarter, as a girl she captivated, and as a woman she commanded. Blessed by the Ancestors, she was undefeated in the Provings and respected in the Assembly. When Empress Celene sent diplomats, they met with Princess Aeducan. When King Cailan made his first visit to Orzammar, it was her he asked for. Everyone who met her loved her.</p><p>Gorrim had never stood a chance. Dalriada was beauty and brilliance combined, and when he was asked to become her Second instead of her brother’s he thought he knew the purest happiness. When she threw herself into his arms after their first Proving together, after she took a blow for him that should have felled a Bronto and stood through it to bring them through unbowed and then clapped him on the back at the end and told him he’d been brilliant, he knew he’d been wrong. When she told him “I know” after her Nameday celebration, her lips still almost touching his and her breath mixing with his, and then kissed him again… No dwarf had ever been luckier.</p><p>He’d lain in her bed, with her head resting on his shoulder and her fingers tangled with his, and listened in wonder whilst she talked of what they would do. She was so sure, so confident. When she took up the commission as Orzammar’s General, it was only a matter of time before she convinced her father that a marriage with Gorrim was a good one. If he gave her a daughter they would both join the Noble caste, and if he gave her a son they would remain Warriors and happily so. And if King Endrin objected, as he might, they would back Bhelen to take the throne, she would step aside and support him publicly in exchange for his blessing, and in return give hers to Rica.</p><p>And if all else failed, the Wardens would have them. Any surfacer army would be honoured to have Dalriada Aeducan among their number – she said the same of him and he scoffed – and there was honour in the Wardens. She would bend the world to her will.</p><p>But treachery was an enemy even Darla couldn’t withstand. Bhelen had set the pieces moving before any of them knew the game had begun, and when the trap sprang they were caught and held. In the end, he wasn’t even permitted to share her fate. Together, he knew, they could have survived even the Deep Roads. Instead he watched the door swing shut behind her alone and turned his own back on Orzammar to meet his exile on the surface, which could not be half as cruel as Orzammar had become.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I reject this reality and substitute my own.</p><p>Fine dwarven crafts indeed.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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